A warthog is a wild member of the pig family found in grassland, Savanna, and woodland in sub-Saharan Africa.
They are found in Uganda’s savannah national parks, like Lake Mburo NP Murchison Falls NP, Queen Elizabeth NP and Kidepo Valley NP. In the past, it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P. aethiopicus, but today that scientific name is restricted to the desert warthog of northern Kenya, Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia.
Warthogs are a delicious meal for predators such as lions, leopards, crocodiles, hyenas and humans. Birds of prey such as Verreaux’s eagle owls and martial eagles sometimes prey on piglets
They are fast runners to 35KPH and can defend themselves with their formidable tusks when challenged.
They are voracious foragers, using their very powerful neck muscles to drive their snouts into soils to uncover anything edible and adapted to grazing in savanna habitats. Their diet varies according to season and since they are omnivorous, grasses, roots, berries and other fruits, bark, insects, eggs and carrion makes serious diet.
The gestation period last about 150 to 180 days. Females live in sounders but will isolate themselves in burrows to give birth. It can give birth between 2 to 8 piglets.
When the female becomes pregnant, she leaves her family and makes a den in an area where there are no warthogs. She gives birth usually to 2-8 young ones
They generally reach sexual maturity by 18 to 24 months of age. Their Breeding season occurs in the spring right after the rainy season has ended when there’s more food available. Males start mating at the age of 4 years.
These Warthogs may live up to 15 years in the wild and during their life time, they also live a symbiotic relationship with the mongoose which is a rare example of mammals exhibiting mutualism, where two different animal species live together each benefiting the other. The warthog gets cleaned as the mongoose feasts on the Ticks. For more interesting experience and facts,
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By kennedy migadde B
